1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the field of chemical engineering, specifically to a method of separation through chemical engineering.
2. Background—Discussion of Prior Art
Separation of one substance from another substance has long been a desired goal of industry. Since the advent of industry, commonly used means of separating one substance from another substance or other substances have been mechanical in nature. These mechanical methods of separation are screens, semi-permeable membrane, specific gravity flotation, electrostatic techniques and magnetic attraction. The difficulty with these methods of separation is that they require one of the substances have a differential that will distinguish that substance from all of the others. There must be a difference in states of matter with screen separation. There must be a difference in molecular size with membrane separation. There must be a noticeable difference in specific gravity (density) of a substance if flotation separation is to be successful. There must be an electrostatic value difference with one substance if electrostatic techniques are to be used in separating the substances. To separate by magnetic attraction, one substance must contain the element Iron, Cobalt or Nickel and the amount must be noticeably different from the other substances.
These various mechanical means of separation are not very efficient or even successful for all substances that an industry may wish to separate. Mechanical methods of separation are dependent on the inherent physical characteristics of the substances that are to be separated. These mechanical methods of separation have no method of changing the physical characteristics or creating new physical characteristics of the substances that need to be separated. An important step in making these mechanical methods of separation more efficient, or even possible in some cases, would be to have a method to change the physical characteristics of the substance to allow the mechanical methods to operate more efficiently or operate at all.
Patent documents refer to some of these mechanical methods of separation. U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,914 Inoue et al.—Method for removing iron content in petroleum series mineral therefrom is an example. This method does not include a way to remove a substance that does not have a magnetic attraction as an inherent physical characteristic. This invention is restricted to removing a substance that already has a magnetic attraction by using magnetic separation. This invention does not create a substance that will have a magnetic attraction so that a method of magnetic separation can be used. This invention does not increase or decrease the magnetic attraction of a substance so that a method of magnetic separation can be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,290,401 Savisalo et al.—Method and a device for separating plastic particles from suspensions. This invention is restricted to separating plastic particles from suspensions using turbulent flows and concentration differences. A screening device aids in the separation.
This invention does not include a method to create or change the concentration difference of one substance in order to separate that substance from others.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,635 Reinger—Process and apparatus for the recovery of cellulose fibers from paper-plastic mixtures. This invention is restricted to recovering cellulose fibers from paper-plastic mixtures by controlled wetting to increase the weight of the sheet of paper relative to the plastic and then use abrasive forces to fiberize the paper for separation through screening. This invention does not create or change the specific gravity of one substance in order to separate that substance from others.
Organic chemistry books are filled with organic chemical reactions that are available to a chemical engineer that can be used to form a new substance. Using an organic chemical reaction to alter a substance to form another substance is called an organic synthesis. Chemical engineers do this to create new substances that will be used for industrial applications. Organic chemistry textbooks such as Elements of Organic Chemistry present these reactions for no other purpose than to show how the specific reactions operate for educational purposes. Pages 191-192 discuss how an organic chemical reaction alters an alcohol to form either a carboxylic acid or a ketone. This organic chemical reaction alters the molecular structure of a substance. Other organic chemical reactions discussed in the book also demonstrate how to alter the molecular structure of a substance to form a new substance. The purpose for creating the new substance is to somehow use the new substance for some useful purpose. The purpose for creating the new substance is never to prepare the substance for separation by a mechanical method of separation. There is not a method or process that uses organic chemical reactions or organic synthesis to alter the molecular structure of a substance so that a mechanical method of separation can be used to successfully separate one substance from other substances.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,119 Stahl et al.—Method of separating a mixture of plastics comprising at least three components using electrostatic techniques. This invention uses heat and/or a chemical substrate to enhance the triboelectric charge of a plastic but this is not done with a chemical reaction. The chemical treatment referred to is the selection of a substrate or “the separation liquid is selected”. This invention does not use a chemical reaction to alter the molecular structure of any substance.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,679 Kreisler—Method for recovering and separating metals from waste streams. The chemical agents in this invention are employed to promote binding of metals together but does not alter the molecular structure of the metals. Oxidizing agents and reducing agents are used to degrade or decompose organic compounds and chelating agents, respectively. This invention would only separate metals and would not do so by altering the molecular structure. Degrading or decomposing a substance is not separating that substance from another. Organic compounds are destroyed and cannot be separated with this invention. The binding of the metals is done by promoting the ionic bonding among all the metals in the waste stream and this does not alter the molecular structure of the metals. Altering the molecular structure of a substance means that at least one atom is either removed or added to the molecule. There is not a method or process that uses organic chemical reaction or organic synthesis to alter the molecular structure of a substance so that a mechanical method of separation can be used to successfully separate one substance from other substances. U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,867 Jody, et al.—Method for the separation of high impact polystyrene(HIPS) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene(ABS) plastics. This invention is restricted to separating 2 substances that have a specific gravity greater than but near 1.0. There must be a specific surface tension range and certain pH range. The invention treats the surface of the HIPS plastic with an acid and water solution to cause air bubbles to adhere more to the surface of HIPS plastics than to ABS. These air bubbles act as “buoys” that float the HIPS plastics to the top of the water on specific gravity flotation and the ABS remains on the bottom. The invention does not use an organic chemical reaction to alter the molecular structure of HIPS or ABS. The air bubbles adhering to the surface of a substance do not alter the molecular structure of that substance.